Locomotive ob cae



Jan. 13, 1925.

F. B. HOWELL LOCQMOTIVE OR CAR Filed April 1 1924 was by His Attor'neg.

' Inventor: Fred BHQWeLL;

Patented Jan, 13,

UNITED STATES l lfilil lldfl PATENT OFFICE.

FRED B. HOWELL, 0F SCHENECTADY, NEW? YORK, ASQIGNUR T0 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A. CORPORATION 013 NEWV YORK.

LOGU'MUTIVE OE] GAE.

Application filed April 1, 19%.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRED B. HOWELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Schenectady, in the county of Schenectady, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful improvements in 110001110 tives or Cars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to locomotives or cars for railway systems in which racks are utilized on the grades to provide additional tractive effort. it more particularly relates to a means for facilitating the meshing of the driving gear of the locomotive or car with the stationary rack as the locomotive or car passes from a section of track only provided with ordinary rails onto the section of track which is provided with a rack.

ltacks have long been used in connection with railway systems but in the past their use has been limited to relatively short systems in which it has been convenient to use the rack throughout the complete length of the system. r In such a system, the driving gear always remains in mesh with the rack and. no difliciillty is experienced in meshing the rack gear with the rack, but in the system such as is contemplated by my invention, where the grades are separated by considerable distance and the racks are only placed at the points in the system where the grades occur, some means must be provided which will insure the meshing of the rack gear with the rack when the locomotive passes from a section of track provided only with ordinary rails on to a section of the system in which a raclr is located.

The object of my invention is to provide means whereby a rack can be used in any system irrespective of its length and be located only at the points where it can be used most advantageously, as for instance at the steep grades in the system.

I accomplish the above object by providing means adjacent the approach end of the rack which will cooperate with means on the locomotive and cause the rack gear and driving mechanism on the locomotive to assume a speed which will permit the rack gear and rack to mesh without shock, the speed of said rack gear and driving mechanism just before meshing with said rack being substantially equal to the speed of these parts after meshing with said rack.

Serial No. 703,536,

The various features of novelty which characterize my invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims forming a part of this SIOQClllGZttlUIl. For a better run derstanding of my invention, reference mayv be had to the following description taken in connection with the accompai'iying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a locomotive having my invention embodied therein, and Fig. 2 a perspective view of various parts of my invention.

in the drawing, 1 have shown my invention embodied in an electric locomotive having a plurality of sections or units. One of these sections or units is built as a rack unit 10 which will be described in more detail hereinafter and the other unit is built as an adhesion unit 11, the two units being coupled together by suitable coupling 12. The adhesion unit 11 is provided with electric motors 13 which are geared to driving wheels 14L- in accordance with the usual standard practice, and no further descrip tion of this unit is thought necessary for the purpose of describing my present invention, except to say that the adhesion unit 11 need not necessarily be made as a separate unit, as it will be evident to those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains that the adhesion truck might be built into a single unit together with rack driven trucks such as are illustrated in Fig. l for supporting and driving the rack unit 10.

The rack unit 10 is provided with rack gears 16 which are journaled in side frames 15 and are adapted to mesh with racks 17 located at intervals along the railway sys-' tem where the grades occur. The rack unit 10 also carries wheels 18 which are rota- 9 table with the rack gears 16. These wheels 18 are adapted to engage and make rolling contact with rails 19 before the rack gears 16 and the raclt 17 mesh to thereby cause the rack gears 16 to rotate at a peripheral speed substantially equal to the relative linear speed of the rack 17 before the gears 16 and the rack 17 engageeach other and thus insure a meshing of the two without undue shock.

The wheels 18 as shown in the drawing are mounted upon the same shaft, and have a diameter which is substantially equal to the pitch diameter of the rack gears 16. These wheels 18 engage the rails 19 at a point sufficiently distant from the approach end of the rack 17 to insure that the rack gear 16 comes up to speed before engaging the rack 17 The rails 19 are curved slightly downward at their approach end and are mounted upon springs 20 which provide a yielding support and insure a good frictional contact between the wheels 18 and the rails 19 when they engage each other which will cause the wheels lS to gain speed rapidly and tinally roll along the rails. After the rack gears 16 have meshed with the rack 17, power is applied to the motors 21 which are mounted, together with suitable control apparatus, upon the rack unit 10 and geared to the rack gears 16 by pinions 22 and 23 and gears 24 and 25. The two units 10 and 11 will then operate'as a combination raclr and adhesion locomotive, motors 21 cooperating with the rack 17 and motors 13 cooperating with the adhesion 'rails to supply the tractivc ellort.

The operation of this embodiment of my invention is as follows: As the locomotive travels along over a comparatively level portion of the railway system where no rack is provided,it will be operated and driven as an adhesion unit by the motors 13 on the unit 11. Assume now that the locomotive is approaching a steep grade upon which a rack 17 is provided. The adhesion unit will continue to exert tractive effort. \Yhen the wheels 18 engage the rails 19 the rack gears 16 Will be caused to rotate due to the rolling contact between the wheels 18 and the rails 19, and by the time the rack unit 10 is adjacent the approach end of the rack 17, the rack gears 16 will be rotating at a speed substantially corresponding to the relative linear speed of the rack 17 and the two will then mesh without any undue shock. After the rack gears 16 and the rack 17 have meshed, the control apparatus on the rack unit 10 is operated to supply power to the motors 21 and they will then operate through the .pinions 22 and 23 and the gears 2 1 and 25 to drive the rack gears 16 which, cooperating with the rack 17, will provide the additional tractive effort necessary to propel the locomotive and its train up the grade.

As a means to assist the rail 19in bringing the rack gears 16 up to speed, I may apply sufficient power to the motors 21 to cause them to rotate without load before the rail 19 is engaged and then rely upon the rail 19 to merely control the speed thereof to prevent racing of the series motors and insure that the meshing will take place without shock.

lVhile I have shown the wheels 18 as mounted directly upon the same shaft with the rack gears 16, I desire to have it understood that they may be mounted in many other ways, for instance they may be mounted upon separate shafts and geared by suitable gears to the rack gear shaft. I also wish to have it understood that 1 do not limit my invention to resiliently supported rails 19 in order to secure good contact between the wheels 18 and rails 19, as it will be evident that the same results can be obtained by other means, for instance the rack gears 16 may be biased downwardly by suitable means.

hat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In combination, a truck, a raclc gear supported on said truck, a rack adapted to engage said rack gear, a rail adjacent the approach end of said rack, and a wheel rotatable with said rack gear and adapted to engage said rail for causing said gear to rotate as said truck approaches said rack, the peripheral speed of said gear before meshing with said rack being substantially equal to the relative linear speed of said rack when said gear and said rack mesh.

In. combination, a truck, a rack gear supported on said truck, a rack adapted to engage said rack gear, a stationary rail adjacent the approach end of said rack, a wheel rotatable with said rach'. gear and adapted to make rolling contact with said stationary rail for causing said gear to rotate at a speed substantially equal to the relative linear speed of said raclr before said rack gear engages said rack, and means for inducing a good frictional contact between said wheel and said rail.

3. In combination, a truck, a rack, a gear supported by said truck and adapted to mesh with said rack, a wheel rotatable with said gear, and means adjacent the approach end of said rack and cooperating with said wheel for causing said gear to rotate as said truck approaches said rack, the peripheral speed of said gear before meshing with said rack being substantially equal to the relative linear speed of said rack when said gear and said rack mesh.

1-. In combination, a truck, a rack, a gear supported by said truck and adapted to mesh with said rack, a wheel rotatable with said gear, and yielding means adjacent the approach end of said rack and cooperating witlr said wheel for causing said gear to rotate as said truck approaches said rack, the peripheral speed of said gear before meshing with said rack being substantially equal to the relative linear speed of said rack when said gear and said rack mesh.

5. In combination, a truck, a rack, a gear supported by said truck and adapted to mesh with said rack, a shaft for said gear, a wheel rotatable with said gear secured to said shaft, and means adjacent the approach end of said rack cooperating with said wheel for causing said gear to rotate before it meshes with said rack, the speed of rotation of said gear before meshing being substantially equal to that which would be impartmasses ed to said gear by the movement of said gear over said rack.

6. In combination, a truck, a rack, a gear supported by said truck and adapted to mesh with said rack, a shaft for said gear, a Wheel rotatable with said gear secured to said shaft, and yielding means adjacent'the approach end of said rack cooperating with said wheel for causing said gear to rotate before it meshes with said rack, the speed of rotation of said gear before meshing be ing substantially equal to that which would be imparted to said gear by the movement of said gear over said rack,

7. In combination, a truck, a rack, a gear supported by said truck and adapted to mesh with said rack, a shaft for said gear, a Wheel secured to said shaft having a diameter equal to the pitch dimension of said gear, and a rail adjacent the end of said rack and adapted to cooperate with said wheel and cause said gear to rotate before it meshes with said rack, the speed of said gear before meshing corresponding sub stantialiy With its speed after meshing.

8. In combination, a truck, a rack, a gear supported by said truck and adapted to mesh with said rack, a shaft for said gear, a Wheel secured to said shaft having a charm eter equal to the pitch diameter of said gear, and a resiliently supported rail adjacent the end of said. rack and adapted to cooperate with said wheel and cause said gear to re tate before it meshes with said rack, the speed of said gear before meshing corresponding substantially with its speed after meshing.

9. In combination, rails, a truck, a rack between said rails, a gear on said truck adapted to mesh with said rack, a motor on said truck for driving said gear, a Wheel rotatable with said gear and said motor and means adjacent the approach end of said rack adapted to cooperate with said Wheel for causing said gear and said motor to as sume a speed before meshing with said rack which will permit said gear and said rack to mesh Without shock when said gear engages said raclr.

10. In coi'nb-ination, rails, a truck, a rack between said rails, a gear on said truck adapted to mesh with said rack, a motor on said truck for driving said gear, a Wheel rotatable With said gear and said motor, and yielding means adjacent the approach end of said rack adapted to cooperate With said Wheel for causing said gear and said motor to assume a speed before meshing With said rack Which Will permit said gear and said rack to mesh Without shock When said gear engages said rack.

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 29th day of March 1924.

FRED B. HOWELL. 

